New Brunswick Collections Group Meeting Minutes
September 23, 2005
9:30 a.m.

In Attendance : Ellen Calhoun, Kayo Denda, Mary Fetzer, Constance Finlay, Rebecca Gardner, Tom Glynn, Karen Hartman, Bill Hemmig, Helen Hoffman, Melissa John, Martin Kesselman, Triveni Kuchi (recorder), Patricia Libutti, Mei Ling Lo, Kevin Mulcahy (Chair), Laura Mullen, Pat Piermatti, John Shepard, Jane Sloan, Gracemary Smulewitz, Karen Wenk, Ryan Womack, Mary Beth Weber (Guest), Sharon Favaro (Guest),Ying Zhang.

• Meeting was called to order. The Chair decided to begin with some of the items on the agenda before the guests arrived.
  
  
• Introductions: Melissa John, RUL intern was welcomed to NBCG. She is currently working on a project with Lourdes Vazquez and then with Mei Ling Lo. Kevin welcomed members to contact him if they were planning projects and would like Melissa to be involved.
  
  
• Minutes of June 2005 Meeting were approved and will be posted to the NBL Website.
  
  
• Report from the Chair:
  • Budget: There were enough funds to cover standing orders. The non-state funds are still not available, but expected shortly.
  • Recommendation: selectors can prepare their book order lists and keep them ready for use as soon as budget allocation is announced.
  • There will some savings from Wiley Science subscription moving to Knowledge Initiative – probably on the order of $300,000.
  • The libraries are considering doing focused fund raising for a highly requested database, Eighteenth Century Collections Online, and it is possible that such campaigns might become part of our normal practice.
  • Note: Books that come on approval are pulled off the shelves and accepted approximately every two weeks even if the selector has not had a chance to look at them yet. Approval books may arrive approximately every Wednesday, Thursday, Friday or Monday. Selectors should be sure to go to TAS regularly, arrange to have colleagues review their books, or tighten their profiles so that automatic acceptance is not a problem.
  • Shelf-Ready books are being tested in Camden, and will eventually be implemented in NB. There might be problems of routing the books to the right library for some of the profiles.
  • Note: Cost of approvals will rise with the reduction of the discount from 19% to 18.2% starting this year.
  • Discussion of NetLibrary acquisitions: Consider the possibilities of combined pricing for print and electronic versions, consider "perpetual access" options to the electronic additions, compare any competitor electronic book providers, and evaluate use of Net library books.
    
  
  
• Gift Books - Policies, Procedures, and Priorities - Mary Beth Weber

  Highlights of discussion included:

  • Staff shortages [Typically only 3 staff members work on Gift books]
  • Space constraints
  • Cataloging department needs to be informed about how many items they can expect to receive before sending the gift books over for cataloging.
  • Limited shipping is recommended. Current imprints will have priority for cataloging. Place the priority slip in each book with other instructions checked off. Both virtual (done at Cataloging) and physical book plating (done at Collections services) is available (check it off on the priority form). Contact Cataloging for priority forms. Discussion ensued regarding clarifications of priority slips and how to get hold of most updated copies. Contact the cataloging department for getting copies before sending books over. Explanation of Priority slips: Priority 0= No priority; Priority 1=24 hour turn around (such as for reserves); Priority 2= 30 Day turn around. Address the box or envelope for sending gift books as:

  Attention: Gifts
  Cataloging Department
  TAS, Busch.

  If the books are duplicates but need to ADDED, then send them to Collections Services (Not Cataloging department): Address them according to the collections services department locations as:

  Melody Tomaszewicz,
  Collections Services,
  LSM, Busch.

  Susan Brower,
  Collections Services,
  Alexander, CAC.

  • Collection services is assessing to what extent staff can perform searching of gift books at Alexander or LSM Collections services offices. Kevin will follow-up with Gracemary.
  • As regards foreign language cataloging, Romance languages, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew and Spanish languages are well covered.
  • Issues of cataloging e-books were mentioned.
  • In order to ensure a smooth processing of gifts, Kevin suggested that he, Mary Beth and Gracemary could pull together a list of steps for selectors to follow.
  • Selectors are asked to contact Mary Beth and Gracemary before accepting large gifts, especially if these might involve additional costs for binding/preserving. Such costs may have to be requested from the donor prior to accepting the gifts. Typically, a collections services staff member will check the gifts books and estimate costs for preserving/binding, and so on

• The "N" Fund - explanation and background; Selector's role in the book plating process- Gracemary Smulewitz
  • The "N" fund at one point of time stood for "Non-Periodical Series." Due to the confusion it created, all the titles were moved into the "P" fund for periodicals.
  • At present, whenever periodical subscriptions are ordered, selectors funds are encumbered for those specific orders. However, sometimes these monies are not used up or spent for a year or several years (some periodicals are not paid on a yearly basis). A new fund (reinstating the "N" fund with a new meaning) - the "N" fund will be used to place these encumbered but unspent monies. Gracemary will be generating periodical titles lists by fund code. The left over funds will be available/allocated based on subject areas for selectors primarily for monograph or one-time type of purchases.
  • An explanation of the book plating process was provided. The physical book plating instructions need to be specified on the priority form so that they can be included in the workflow from Cataloging to Collections Services (before the books go on to the shelves). For only a virtual bookplate, selectors may use the notes field in the GOBI online ordering form.
  • "Book Plating" was pointed out as a very important method for attracting donors and raising funds for collections, especially if the field could be searched on IRIS. It was also suggested that "virtual book plating" maybe considered as a default for gift books. More ideas such as placing a facsimile of the physical bookplate next to the book record in IRIS, and so on were suggested.
  • Gracemary agreed to pull together some documentation for selectors on these procedures.
    
    
• Sub-group Team Leader reports
  • Social Sciences:
    Selectors will meet in October or November to review and discuss priorities.
  • Sciences: None.
  • Humanities: None.
  • Reference: None.
    
    
• Selector Responsibilities: Ongoing Discussion - all
  • Chair presented a set of questions that selectors could choose to start off discussions:
    1. How does the increasing centralization of the budget, because of large database packages, affect the role of the selector?
    2. How many selectors does NBL require? Fewer, more, the same?
    3. What roles do selectors play beyond purchasing books, journals, databases, sound recordings, scores, films, etc?
    4. What skills, talents, levels of subject expertise, language abilities, etc. do selectors need to fulfill these roles?
    5. How well can selectors fill these roles under budget constraints? In what ways can selectors be effective liaisons without large discretionary budgets?
    6. What do selectors need from RUL/NBL to fulfill their roles in an effective way?
    7. In light of university and RUL priorities, to which selector positions should we give the highest priority in the coming five years?
    8. What other questions should we be asking ourselves? RUL? RU?
       
       
  • Discussion ensued:
    • With the increasing online database packages, the selectors experience a lack of control in canceling specific journal titles that may not be related or core to RU needs.
    • Hybrid packages with full-text collections and related issues were mentioned.
    • Suggestions were made regarding "specialist teams." For instance, a team in "physical sciences" involving all librarian subject specialists could work together to handle liaison needs, digital development and collections.
    • Selectors mentioned facing not only lack of funds but also a lack of control regarding funds allocations, especially to cater to the needs expressed by faculty members of their departments.
    • Selectors needs more support with assessment of collections. Gracemary provided a brief summary of the status of “Director Station.” It has been purchased and is in the process of being setup for use with Sirsi.
    • The idea of a toolkit for selectors was floated. It was agreed that such a “collection of steps” would help new or incoming selectors as well as serve as a reminder for selectors sending gift books, and so on.
      
      
• Announcements:

  Selectors were reminded to try out RefWorks.

Next NBCG Meeting October 28, 2005 @ Kilmer Library, Room 10